It doesn’t reflect particularly well on Newcastle United that the out-of-favour Matz Sels remains at St James’ Park while Willy Caballero, Rafael Benitez’s goalkeeping target of choice, appears set to put pen to paper elsewhere.

And, according to The Chronicle, the two factors are most certainly linked.

Sels arrived in the North East for a hefty £5 million last summer after catching the eye at Genk in his homeland of Belgium, guiding them to the knockout stages of the Champions League before being defeated by a Julian Draxler inspired Wolfsburg.

However, an inability to adapt to the physical nature of the English game meant Sels did not make a Championship appearance from October onwards – despite starting the season as the club’s number one ahead of Karl Darlow.

And, with the Northern Echo, claiming that Benitez is looking out for a new ‘keeper, and could even be open to selling Darlow, it appeared that Caballero was the first name in the frame.

Must sell Sels

The Argentine was released by Manchester City upon the expiry of his contract despite impressing when replacing the out-of-form Claudio Bravo in the starting XI in both domestic and European competition last season.

And although The Sun reported that the former Malaga ‘keeper looked set to sign for Chelsea instead and replace Asmir Begovic as their back-up option, agent Adrian Faija has told Goal that Caballero could pick Newcastle over Antonio Conte’s champions.

Manchester City's Willy Caballero

However, an inability to get Sels off the books could prove fatal. The Chronicle claims that Anderlecht want to bring the 25-year-old back to Belgium but have been put off by his £20,000-a-week wages.

Danny Owen

Daniel is a Journalist graduate from Leeds Trinity University and is generally obsessed with everything football related. Daniel watches everything from Augsburg in the Bundesliga to Vitesse in the Eredivisie with as much La Liga as possible thrown in for good measure.